With the recent growing demand for flat-screen television receivers, display technologies of various systems, including those making use of liquid crystal, plasma, organic electroluminescence (hereinafter may be called “organic EL”) and field emission, have been developed. For any of these displays of different display systems, a transparent electrode is an essential component. The transparent electrode is indispensable not only for television receivers but also for touchscreens, mobile phones, electronic paper, various solar cells and various electroluminescence control elements.
In particular, organic EL elements used for illumination and highly efficient solar cells are required to have a large area. Hence, an electrode having low resistance is required. In addition, demands for stable use for a long period of time under a high temperature environment and for maintenance of flexibility have been increasing.
For example, there is described in Patent Document 1 a method of calcining, by infrared ray irradiation, thin metal wires printed using an ink containing silver nanoparticles, and its effectiveness is known. However, an electrode showing low resistance and further improvement in storability is required.